I Am Not Throwing Away My Shot

I have been a lover of microbrews, as we used to called them, since the early 1990s. We sampled everything we could find, discovering new flavors and styles that we never knew existed. I first homebrewed back in California, making a serviceable brown ale from an extract kit I bought. When I moved to Florida, it was somewhat of a beer wasteland, so I subsisted on pints of Guinness and the few-and-far-between locations that served up great beers from Europe. When the bottle laws changed, so did the beer scene.

I started writing about beer in 2009 when I started this blog. It opened up my world yet again, and I started to meet people in the industry who were making things happen. Joey and Wayne at Cigar City, Bob Sylvester at Saint Somewhere, the Bryant family at Dunedin Brewing, and the Doble family at Tampa Bay Brewing Company. As the scene grew, so did my involvement. I wrote for a few publications, was asked to write for more websites, and started doing television appearances to talk about beer. With each new brewery, and each new craft beer bar, my circle grew wider. I learned more.

I was brought in at the beginning to help start Tampa Bay Beer Week, and soon found myself on the first board of directors, ultimately becoming Chair. I have had the pleasure of working with some truly amazing people in that time. Representatives from breweries, distributors and wholesalers, retailers, and some other “unaffiliated” folks like me. Some have become close friends now, and I have watched them get married, have kids, change careers, and so on. It has been incredibly educational and immensely rewarding. I am very proud of the events we developed and put on, the representation we made for the beer community, and the benefit we brought to the industry here in Tampa Bay. As of last month, I relinquished the gavel and, for the first time since 2012, I am no longer a voting member.

Years ago, I wrote a post titled “I Want to Work in the Craft Beer Industry”. I can’t seem to find it anywhere… maybe I deleted it because, as I recall, it was pretty naive and silly. So much so, in fact, that a year or so later, I wrote another post titled “I Do NOT Want to Work in the Craft Beer Industry”, mainly citing my enjoyment of being free and independent and whatnot. Again, fairly silly. But fate, the universe, or whatever you want to call it has a funny way of pulling the threads of life.

I am happy to announce publicly today that I am beginning my new career as the Executive Director of the Florida Brewers Guild.

I am beyond excited to start this new chapter of my life, and I feel like everything I have been doing over the past nine years has led to this, not to mention the years of just being a fan. I look forward to working with the breweries in Florida and helping the state move forward towards laws and attitude that better serve the industry and its customers.

This is an incredible opportunity to work with and in an industry that I have come to know and love.

And I am not throwing away my shot.

Cheers!

 

 

~ by Sean Nordquist on May 1, 2017.